Symptoms
by EmilyEphebiphobia
Summary: Arthur starts to exhibit the symptoms of an addiction towards Ariadne. Arthur/Ariadne.


**I got bored.. and decided to do this thingy. Yeah, sorry if it sucks. Enjoy anyways :) **

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**Symptoms**

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**1. you start to forget the basics **

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He was always, and had always been the most organized of the team. He would be the earliest to arrive, the first to finish taking notes, the one who was always focused.

No matter what, nothing would distract him from his man focus.

But when she stepped into their rented warehouse, everything changed. Time wasn't crucial, neatness wasn't his nessecity (atleast until he learned to control his thoughts).

She _was_.

It started out the minute she shook his hand. He had been thinking of how to get infomation for this certain inception job, and how he was going to aquire the tools to get it. In the back of his mind, admist that, he had also set up his schedule for today. He would work on the PASIV for a few hours, have lunch; his usual salad; and then work on getting this information.

"Hey, I'm Ariadne." She smiled, holding out her hand. He took it, immediately loosing sight of his schedule.

Was he supposed to test out the PASIV first? He could no longer remember. He nodded towards her, a smile twitching one side of his lip up.

"I'm Arthur." His mind took instantly, to her appearance. Usually he found flourescent or frilly scarves, especially in the summer, unattractive. But on her, it seemed to pop, and set something going in his brain. Something neither related to annoyance nor mutual indifference.

Never in his life had he taken drugs, but he was sure what would be going on in these next few months would be equivalent to addiction... or at least uncontrollable symptoms of it.

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**2. you start to get the feel of it**

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When they first started working with each other, Cobb had him find her a sketchbook and some pencils. He was finally able to remember his schedules and notes around her, but sometimes, it would slip. _Occaisonally_ was really the better word.

He handed her the spiral book, three sharpened pencils rolling around on top of it. She took them from him, smiling in thanks. Her fingers slipped ever so slightly, brushing his thumb.

It got hard to swallow for a second.

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**3. change in attitude**

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He realized, what ever was going on in his brain around her, or when he was just thinking of her (again the word occaisonally fit) was complete ridicule.

He shouldn't be obsessing over this girl, he hadn't dated, or thought of it, high school, nine years ago, whenhe was eighteen. He was didn't have time for this (but he did, because time was no longer crucial.) Why was he always thinking of her? He hardly knew her, and she hardly knew him. Only that was a lie. They knew each other, because they had gotten quite close across the span of her first week.

She came to him many times, showing him a short and broken pencil, a pout coming to her perfect red lips. He would sigh sarcasticly, and hand her another pencil.

She had taken to borrowing his pencils when her own seemed to break or became to short to use. He looked at his neat pot of writing utensils, counting the pencils. He frowned slightly, his eyes straying towards where she was sat at her desk, sketching away. She had borrowed ten in the past week. Normally when people borrowed his pencils, it would irritate him.

But when Ariadne used them, he wasn't the least bit annoyed.

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**4. your body is affected from it**

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While working on the second level dream scape level with her, she had tripped on the edge of the dresser, suddenly falling into him, knocking him onto the bed.

And of course she just had to land on him. She blushed slightly, pulling off of him a few seconds too late. She rubbed her leg, smiling meekly at him.

"Sorry Arthur."

He was afriad to speak, because he knew if he did, his voice would be hoarse, and probably too husky for his own good. He nodded, slowly getting up from his position, trying (and failing, he later admitted to himself) to stand up with the usual agile stance of his. He probably looked like a drunkard.

What was worse, is when they awoke, Eames had one of his smug looks plastered all over his face. As soon as Ariadne was safely across the room and out of hearing distance, Eames leaned towards Arthur, who was packing away the PASIV.

"Uh mate, your body was a bit happy back there. And I'm _not_ just talking about blushing." He whispered, choking back a laugh.

He just hoped Eames was the only one to witness this.

Until he caught Cobb's wriggling eyebrows, his theory was proven correct. But Cobb's eyes said it all. As did Yusuf's little giggles from behind the whiteboard.

Arthur facepalmed in annoyance.

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**5. everything seems different from what it really is**

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It only went downhill from there.

The next day he woke up thirty minutes late (he blamed the incident before), and had to skip out on breakfast. He managed to arrive at the warehouse fashionably late, but he knew everyone but Araidne, who was oblivious to this, knew what was happening.

During their meeting to talk about the background information and ideas, Arthur's stomach had let out a very loud protest. His ears turned red, as he looked down at his lap, mumbling an apology.

A croissant was shoved in his face the next minute, and he turned to a smiling Ariadne. He thanked her gently, taking a small bite of the french bread.

She nodded back, patting his thigh in comfort, returning to her drawing.

Arthur froze completely, his food suspended in mid air. He blinked, the croissant in his mouth turning doughy as he felt his face redden. He swallowed heavily, looking down at his notebook, refusing to meet anyones eyes.

And of course Eames couldn't stop laughing.

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**6. you get disillusional, and sometimes cannot control specific parts of your body**

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She had been going over her final plans and changes for the second level with him, and he couldn't help but be an involuntarily sort of flirt (usually he felt like Eames being one, but around her it felt almost right). Of course she would smile, and her cheeks would redden ever so slightly.

Every time she smiled, time seemed to have no meaning to him. It was just the two of them..endless.

He had thanked her for the plans, and gone over to discuss a matter with Eames at the table, who still refused to let these incindents drop. He had finished talking to him and borrowed the man's notes and headed back towards his neat desk. His eyes skimmed over the notes, looking up to ask Ariande something, when once again he froze.

Plus the poor question was essentially forgotten.

She was sat on the edge of the counter she used for sketching, her legs crossed over each other. In her hand was her sketchpad, and in her mouth

(oh _god,_ he thought)

was the end of his borrowed pencil.

If the team found his earlier antics amusing, they would have a sight behold starting now.

Ariadne looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. It took Eames' laughter, Cobb's bitten lip and Yusuf's pervert facial expression to realize that Arthur had said what he thought out loud.

He wondered if he should just quit this job.

But then, not seeing her everyday would essentially be more tortuous than the other team members laughs and remarks.

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**7. your mind can't focus on too many things at once**

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He started to wonder if she was in on these jokes too. Right before one of their usual meetings, he had been sitting down, getting his notes ready, when she had come out of nowhere, cupped his face and planted a kiss on his cheek.

She blushed, walking off, not a word said.

He swallowed, touching his cheek with his finger, blushing too.

As the meeting started, they started to discuss the means of sedation and how the hell they would get out of the dream.

"So, once we've made the plant, how do we go out? I hope you have something more elegant in mind than shooting me in the head? " Arthur mused, sarcasticly. Cobb looked towards him, rolling up his sleeve.

"A kick." Ariadne looked at Cobb, confused.

"Whats a kick?"

Eames grinned. "This, Ariande would be a kick."

Up until then, Arthur had been indulged in his thoughts of the kiss right before this meeting, and he was comfortably leaned dangerously far back on the chair legs. Until Eames, with a swift slip of his foot, tipped Arthur's chair. Arthur rocked for a second, managing to put the chair back on the ground (quite elegantly, he congratualted himself, because he wasn't really himself with her around), glaring towards Eames.

If you looked close enough, he figured, you could see he was blushing. But not from the 'kick'.

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**8. you face the facts**

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Arthur had, very irritated now, demanded that Eames tell him how he bribed Ariadne into kissing his cheek before the meeting.

The man looked at him, shocked.

"She _kissed _you? Congrats!" He looked genuinely innocent (a rare look for Eames) and happy, which made Arthur more annoyed.

"Well you would know, Eames, you did bribe her to do it." Eames stared at him, shaking his head.

"Never, mate. If she kissed your cheek, she did it out of her own free will."

This made Arthur blush, because he actually believe him.

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**9. you realize you may need help, time becomes crucial**

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The second level down of the real job was when he realized, he couldn't live on like this. She was more than a friend in his eyes, and he was sure she had something going on too.

What he'd planned in his mind was ending up maybe in the bar, watching over Cobb, making sure the Mr. Charles design was working.

But instead (he didn't believe in fate, only coincidences) he ended up sat next to her on a small couch in the lobby of the elegant but plain hotel he had helped designed. He expected her to be in her usual attire; scarf, jeans, boots and that red jacket.

Only when he turned his head, his breath caught in his throat.

He had actually imagined her in a business suit, a gracious one at that. He mentally patted himself on the back.

If was during the period of time when he was explaining the design of Mister Charles to her that he came to the conclusion that time was indeed crucial, and he knew that after this job, it would all be over.

She would be finishing college, and and she would dissapear from his life all together.

He didn't want that to ever happen.

So he took his chance when she was flustered, asking about the gravity shifts around them, to keep her in his life, even if for only a small extension. It was still better than nothing.

"What's happening?" She asked, trembling ever so slightly. He looked around, clasping his hands in his lap.

"Your subconscious is looking for the dreamer; for me." He answered, glancing at her sideways.

"Quick, give me a kiss."

And with that he planted the smallest of kisses on her lips, but he knew it was enough to keep her closer to him than if he had done nothing. She pulled away, her lower lip slightly pursed as she looked around.

"They're still looking at us." He couldn't help but smirk.

"Yeah, it was worth a shot."

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**END. **

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Sorry for the loss of the whole addicted thing, I don't think I made Arthur sound addicted enough. My bad.. Hope you enjoyed through. :) Review? Thankss. x


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